Skeleton in the Concrete
by Luciddreamer326
Summary: Joining forces with a missing person’s agent, Brennan and Booth work to solve one of the toughest murders they have come across.
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Skeleton in the Concrete

Plot: Joining forces with a missing person's agent, Brennan and Booth work to solve one of the toughest murders they have come across.

Rating: T (for totally awesome p ) Some language and sensitive situations will be a part of this story I imagine.

Disclaimer: Why does anyone ever put these?

Spoilers: Maybe some Season 2 references. I will try to stay away from Season 3 plot.

Notes: I haven't written any fanfic in ages. I love feedback, so let me know how I am faring.

**Chapter 1**

Rural Virginia

2:06 p.m.

"Okay, wow. The reception out here is terrible," Booth grumbled as he waved his cell phone around in the air with one hand, the other stuck to the wheel.

"You might want to keep both hands on the wheel. Statistics show that there are more automobile accidents due to cell phone usage than driving while intoxicated," Brennan explained.

Booth sent her a look and she smiled slightly to herself. For once, they were actually getting along. Well, more than normal. A day without some small bickering would be extremely unheard of.

"Just so you know, I am highly capable of multi-tasking," he said sarcastically.

"Right. Like walking down the street while talking on the phone, and shooting clown heads on ice cream trucks."

"You aren't going to let that go are you? Dr. Wyatt and I had that solved in therapy months ago. Now we are moving on to Dr. Sweets."

"I am glad treatment went well for you," Brennan smiled.

"Not treatment Bones. We just went over some things. Like…a briefing if you will."

"Speaking of briefings, we have driven close to half an hour and all you have told me is that there are bones. I can't believe I got into the car with you just based off of that…"

"You're a curious person. I say 'bones' and you are grabbing your bag and shoot out the door before me."

The SUV lurched to a stop in a secluded area, and Booth hopped out as Brennan followed. Reaching into her bag, she withdrew her latex gloves and started fitting one of them over her left hand. Following behind Booth, he lifted up the yellow police tape as he flashed his badge to a local cop. His eyes searched the area as various personnel flowed through his vision.

"What are we looking for?" Brennan asked, leaning over Booth's shoulder.

"I got a call from an Agent Blake. She is head of the missing person's division. I have strict orders to 'be nice.' We will see."

"So I am taking it that you haven't met her?"

"Not yet. I saved the experience for the both of us," he said with a small grin.

Winding their way through the people, they finally reached an old shack at the edge of the land plot. Shingles were dangling sideways and the paint was peeling off in mass quantity. Booth stood staring, hands on his hips. Brennan squinted against the brightness of the sun. Sweat beaded at the sides of her temples and she sighed.

"Not exactly life styles of the rich and famous eh?" a voice asked.

Both Brennan and Booth spun to see a young woman staring at the shack, arms crossed and brown hair pulled back into a knot. Her skin was slightly tanned and she stood around 5'9. Booth rolled his eyes and laughed. She had to be no more than twenty-five.

"Another kid," Booth cracked in something less than the whisper he intended.

"I'm sorry?" Blake frowned.

"Nothing, "Booth said as he extended a hand.

Blake shook it with apprehension. Switching over to Brennan, she tried to remove the scowl on her visage.

"Don't take offense. Booth is just concerned with the influx of young men and women that seems to be filtering in to the FBI. He is a man who appreciates experience over intuition," Brennan said grasping Blake's hand.

"Like a dagger to the heart," Blake grumbled softly. "Anyway, if you old 'fogies' were doing your job, then maybe the FBI wouldn't need to look to the other end of the age spectrum."

Brennan watched as Booth's jaw clenched tightly. She lightly touched his back, trying to keep the gesture unnoticed by Blake. He tensed to her touch and she felt his shoulder blades draw up. Thank goodness an officer walked up.

"We combed the area. No one around. We did find this however," the man spoke, holding up an evidence sack with a jaw bone.

"You picked it up!? That is compromising remains," Brennan yelled.

"Oh man, I feel for you," Booth said with a small head shake.

She snatched the sack out of the man's hand and turned her back to him, swiftly walking to the porch of the house to get some distance between them. Booth and Blake followed behind her. Holding up the bag, Brennan gazed at it intently.

"If someone else touches another thing, I am out," Brennan announced. "This isn't how I work."

"Look, he is a dumbass," Blake offered. "I'll tell them to pass everything through you from now on."

She handed Booth and Brennan a pair of flashlights and withdrew one from her waistband. Clicking it on, she swirled the light around to make sure it was working. Brennan deposited the bag into her satchel and flicked on her light as well.

"The place is dark. Looks like they threw some type of film over the windows. Watch out for traps. You can never been too careful in places like this," Blake warned.

Brennan watched as the Agent's hand came to the knob. Spinning it a few times, it didn't budge. Blake sighed and looked at Booth.

"What?" Booth questioned.

"Use those muscles of yours and do something about this door."

He smiled to her and threw his shoulder into the wood. It splintered with the impact of his body and shards flew outward. Booth motioned for Blake to enter first and she nodded as she passed him. The house was indeed dark, scraps of paper, cans, bottles and other various odds and ends were strewn everywhere. Furniture sat ripped with stuffing coming out of chairs and pillows.

"Ah, Paradise," Booth sighed.

"I don't understand. If the remains were found outside, why are we looking around in here? I should be where the bones are," Brennan said as she followed behind Blake.

"There are about forty men and women filtering through those woods out there. If they find something, I will be the first to know it," Blake explained.

"So how did you get in on this case?"

"I had been following a tip of a missing person's case I was working on. Long story short, that tip lead me out here."

"How long have you been on the missing person's division?"

"A little over six months. So yes, I admit, relatively new at it."

"I see," Booth muttered.

Blake sent him a glare but it faded as quickly as it had come across her face. A smile came up instead.

"It's fine that you think I am a rookie. And by most accounts I am. But in my defense, I have the highest solve rate for my cases than any other Agent in the Bureau right now," she chided as she shined the light in Booth's face.

With a satisfactory huff, she spun around and took a few steps forward. The floorboards creaked and she stopped when she felt them bending. Quickly she turned around to Brennan and Booth who were right on her heals. She tried to throw her hand up to signal for them to stop, but it was too late.

"Shit!" Blake screamed as she fell downward. Her hands tried to grasp the edge of the hole, but she missed. Splinters of wood entered her hands as rough shards sliced through her skin. She hit the ground hard, knocking the air from her lungs.

"Oh my God," Brennan breathed. She sent a sideways look to Booth who stood with his arms crossed and a small smile on his face. Brennan slapped him on the arm. "Aren't you even going to act like you care she just fell through the floor?"

"Oh right," he said and began to walk to the edge of the gaping hole in the ground.

Water trickled down into the hole from an overturned cup that sat near the sofa. Peering into the hole, Booth and Brennan saw Blake lying on the floor. Her flashlight had rolled about five feet from her and shown on her torn hand, blood slowing oozing from the small puncture wounds.

"Hey Blake, wakey wakey. You alright down there?" Booth called out.

She moaned slightly as her fingers began to grip at the floor for leverage. Slowly she unpeeled her skin from the rough surface of the ground. Dust filtered through her nostrils and coated her throat and she coughed spastically.

"Yeah, yeah," she managed to choke out. "The ground broke my fall." Snatching up her flashlight, she gathered her feet under her and moved the beam around. Droplets of blood from her hand had splattered onto the surface of… something. Kneeling, she brought the light down and gazed at the protrusion from the surface. Extending from the fringes of the concrete was a skull. Although Blake was no "forensic anthropologist," she knew it was human.

Wiping her hand on her mouth and stood and swung the light on Booth.

"You might want to get your bone lady down here Booth," Blake called out. "I think I have something here she might want to see."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Blake sat on the ambulance floor while Brennan held her hand gently, looking it over. She moved it slightly and Blake hissed in disapproval. Brennan had cleaned up her wounds and removed the splinters stuck into Blake's skin. She shook her head as she let go of Blake's head and motioned for a medic.

"It's most definitely broken. Looks like you snapped a metacarpal as well as a proximal phalanx. I'll need to set it to prevent movement," Brennan explained. "You'll still need to go to the hospital and possibly need a cast for this. But for now, this will aid in making sure everything stays immobile."

Blake whined a little as the medic handed Brennan the materials to wrap up the hand. Blake turned her head and bit her lip as Brennan set to work, making sure to be as careful as she could. It looked like a rather nasty break. Swelling had already made the hand what looked like twice its' size and purple bruising had begun to show through around the scrapes.

Booth walked up and watched as Brennan worked. He circled around and slapped Blake on the shoulder. Quickly, she spun and sent him a death glare. For the first time, he could tell that she was clearly agitated. And rightfully so. He had broken who know how many bones and none of them had been too pleasant to deal with.

"As soon as you get done wrapping that up and setting it, we will go and see what Agent Blake found for us," Booth offered.

"Yeah, thank you Dr. Brennan. I really appreciate this," Blake said with a wince.

"Judging by what I actually saw of the skeleton, it looked to be Caucasoid and male. Probably around 30 years of age," Brennan said as she worked.

"I called in some people to bring the equipment to light up the basement. They should be here soon," Blake told her.

"Does that fit the description you were going off of?" Booth questioned Blake. She shook her head solemnly

"Unfortunately, no. Must be another sad soul I hadn't yet come across," she sighed. Brennan had finished up with her hand and she brought it protectively against her chest.

"Agent Booth. We have begun setting up downstairs. If Dr. Brennan is ready, then we will escort you to the body," a young agent said.

"Just make sure no one falls through anymore holes. Otherwise, the Dr. and I should be fine," Booth said.

Brennan through her bag over her shoulder and began making her way back to the house. Booth walked by her side as Blake tagged along behind them, still clutching at her throbbing hand. Upon reentering the house, they avoided the route that they had initially followed and took a left to the door of the basement. While rickety, the stairs held to their weight as they came to stand in the bright lighting the FBI had poured into the room. A small path had been cut out to allow Brennan to work, the electrical cords and surge protectors.

Kneeling, Brennan pulled out a piece of chalk and began to run her right hand around the body. Not much was sticking through, save the skull and a bit of the iliac. Once she had traced around the body with her fingers, she calculated what should be enough distance to safely remove the skeleton from the ground. She pulled the chalk along the surface, drawing a rectangle for a man around 5'9 in height.

Brushing off her hands as she stood, she placed them on her hips and shook her head. For once, she had never seen anything like this before.

"I want the skeleton cut out from perimeter I have drawn. I don't want any of the remains touched until I have Okayed the type of tooling to be used. This is going to be a difficult process if we intend to get this removed without any damage," Brennan announced to the various bodies standing around her.

"And exactly how would one go about removing a body from concrete Dr. Brennan?" Blake asked. She stood off to the side and had been watching as Brennan had done her cursory examination of the remains, or at least of what she could see.

"With a mortise chisel and bit?" Booth smiled as a few of the surrounding men scoffed as well. Brennan's face showed that she didn't find it amusing.

"Actually, you make a valid point Booth. Given the delicacy of the situation, I believe that is the exact way this is going to have to be done," Brennan said as she looked down at the skeleton.

Blake shook her head and Booth's jaw hung agape. A bunch of the other people standing around sighed in exasperation or disbelief. It was hard to tell.

"Come on Bones. That is a rough job to handle and only you are probably qualified to exert the amount of effort and tact that this is going to require. My boys are going to be pretty worthless if anything other than a jackhammer is used," Booth told her.

"That's fine. This is a tough one to handle, I admit that. I will be able to find some work load relief in the form of Zach. Call the lab and tell Cam to send him over along with a list of things I am going to need. I will write down everything this will require."

"Well, at least Zach will be up for this on a Saturday night."

"That is why Zach is a great doctor. He is dedicated to his work and knows the importance of such matters. And besides, any anthropologist would find this case highly interesting. We deal with a lot of death and murder, but the method is always different. Some are mundane in the way they died, because we see patterns over and over again. But some hold vast intrigue, like this. It really is fascinating. "

"What about the bone that our fine brethren picked up? What do we do with it?" Blake asked.

"That will be my next priority after we get this out of the ground. It shouldn't take me too long to examine it and run the dentals while this is in transport. "

"Are we making a time allotment as to how long this will take? It seems with only two of you working on it, this is an all nighter," Blake said.

"Just like college all over again," Brennan smiled.

"You really are too happy about this," Booth kidded her as he motioned for the other people standing around to get lost.

"Almost like a beer and hockey to you. We all have things that we enjoy. Mine just happens to be studying a set of human remains."

"You need a new hobby," he said patting her on the back.

She shook her head and bent back down to the skeleton.

"Who are you and how did this happen?" Brennan whispered.

**12:30 a.m.**

Everyone had gone home hours ago. Only she and Zach remained at the house. Blake had left her number for when the skeleton was free from the ground. While Booth had taken an immediate disliking to her, Brennan didn't think she was that terrible. A bit young, yes. But she seemed to handle everything very professionally and took on leadership well.

"This, while interesting, is very hard on my intervertebral column," Zach offered as he slowly chipped away the foundation.

Brennan shook her head. Maybe she had been overzealous about this. But she saw no other way to go about removing the skeleton other than this. A creak on the stairs shattered her thinking and she frantically pulled her large "mall gun" from her bag.

"Whoa! What the hell Bones?" Booth yelled holding up his hands that held several white bags in them. "This isn't the weirdo who put that guy in there coming back for a repeat performance."

"Sorry. I am just a little on edge," Brennan said as she sat down the gun. She rolled her neck around and let out a long sigh.

"I brought you guys some Wong Fu's," Booth said with a smile. He chunked a bag at Zach whose eyes grew wide as he fumbled to grasp it.

"If you want, you can go Zach. We have been at this going on nine hours. I can finish the rest of this up if you want to take a look at this," Brennan offered, holding out the evidence bag. Zach reached for it, but then stood and made no motion to leave.

"I would feel bad leaving you here all by yourself Dr. Brennan," he said.

"Don't worry. Booth is here to keep me company now," Brennan answered back.

With a nod, Zach turned around and headed up the stairs slowly. Brennan opened up her food container and sent Booth a smile of gratitude.

"Thank you for this, really. I am beat," Brennan said as she twirled some noodles around on her chopsticks.

"I figured you guys were tired and hungry. Thought I could help you out," he said with a mouthful.

Brennan nodded and went back to her food. It was going to be a very long night indeed.

-So, uh. Does anyone know how to remove a skeleton from concrete without messing it up terribly? Haha. It seems I have gotten myself into something and I am lacking the creativity to make this as accurate as possible. Oh well. We shall see what happens.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

After around twelve hours of work, a slab had been removed from the concrete and the order had been signed to ship it to the Jeffersonian. When able to finally get some rest, Brennan still had a nervous twitch in her sleep, feeling as if she had forgotten something. Throwing off the scratchy blanket, she sighed to herself and opened her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she grumbled.

"You have this worried look on your face when you sleep. Your nose sort of scrunches up like it does when you disagree with me," Booth demonstrated.

Brennan sat up and took the cup of coffee Booth had in his hand. She sipped it lightly, and looked at him.

"Always coffee," she said quietly.

"Hey, why fix what works with us? It's our thing."

"Right."

"So the reason I really came to see you was…" Booth began. But he was interrupted.

"Body's here!" Blake smiled as she entered Brennan's office.

"How did you get here? And why?" Booth frowned.

"Like you did, I suspect, in a car. I called you to jump in on this case, remember? Besides, I have heard so much about this place, I thought about spending the day out of the Federal Building and seeing what it is you guys do best," Blake offered, throwing a look toward Brennan.

"Even with the skeleton being dropped off now, it is still going to take me…forever. Which I know is empirically impossible, but I think the figure of speech fits well with the scenario considering the amount of tedium this is going to require…"

"Okay, pencils down there Brennan. It's fine. I have the time, which I know Booth loves," she said motioning to him. He met her motion with a look of disgust. "See there? All smiles. This case is mine, so I would like to see where it heads. I mean, what nut-job dumps a body into cement?"

"Actually, the chemical makeup of the substance the corpse now sits in would be considered concrete. Cement is merely an ingredient used in…"

"Once again, too thorough," she said.

"You haven't changed," Brennan muttered.

"Neither have you. Look, I will just meander around in case you guys figure something out. Pretend I am not here," Blake countered and walked out of the office.

"That will be hard," Booth scoffed.

"You really don't like her," Brennan laughed.

"What is with the bureau pairing me with small children?"

"They paired you with me."

"My only shining moment of luck since I have started this job. And besides, what was that little exchange between the two of you?"

"Nothing."

"Yeah right Bones. I interrogate people for a living. That wasn't nothing."

"Zach has the body set up for you guys. He said that the body was dumped into a small hole, then it was covered with the mixture. We're talking muy fresh too so you guys should be able to pop it out," Hodgins announced. "There won't be any bug activity on this one, so looks like I am out of this one."

"We might have particulates, so hang around," Brennan ordered as she stood and grabbed her lab coat. She swiftly tied her hair back and began to follow Hodgins to the platform. Booth hurried to keep up with her.

"I'll find out," Booth whispered hoarsely.

"Ask Blake about it, not me."

Swiping her keycard, Brennan entered the workspace. Zach was hovered over the remains snapping photos. He had set up several cameras to magnify the protruding bones and they were projected on the large monitors around the room.

"That skull does not belong to that body," Blake offered from afar and pointed to one of the monitors.

"What?" Brennan frowned and looked where she was pointing. She had been so busy thinking about how to get the body out of the concrete, she hadn't even looked at t he bones yet.

"Look at the brow ridge and nose palate. The look down to the pubic symphysis. The skull belongs to a black male, probably late twenties to early thirties. The pelvis is that of a female though. They don't match.

The squints all stood silent. Booth was the first to break in.

"Since when did you become a bone lady?" he said with puzzlement.

"Brennan didn't tell you?" Blake asked.

"No…"

"Zach, we will need a dental drill for the lower half of the body. As for the top, we will try to extract the rest via a mold," Brennan commanded.

"Yes Dr. Brennan," Zach answered. Brennan went back to looking at the bones while Zach got the proper equipment.

Brennan bent to look at the chunk of concrete more closely. Blake was sadly right. The skull didn't belong to the body, which would make identification for difficult. As for the skull, most of the molars looked intact. The problem would just be keeping them uncompromised from the drilling and other equipment.

"Okay, how did you know that," Booth said with a smile to Blake as they both watched Brennan circle the body.

"I had an anthropology class at UNC," Blake grunted. "A maymester."

"UNC..the same UNC that Bones lectures at during the summers?"

"She doesn't lecture. She is a drill sergeant. No pass Brennan."

"You flunked the class?"

"And now we get to the true truth," Brennan smiled, undoing her latex glove. She had to wait for the tools anyway, so why not defend herself?

"The true truth is that I am a cop by default. This isn't what I wanted to do," Blake admitted.

"And yet you are the FBI's golden child running the Missing Person's Unit on your own."

"Yeah, well just so you know, they are looking to assign me a partner."

Brennan felt her chest constrict and looked toward Booth. His face held a grim look as they both stared at one another.

"Hey, yo!" a voice called out.

"What the hell Lance," Blake groaned.

"Whoa, Anna. What are you doing here?"

"That's my guy, a la Han Solo."

"Righteous."

"Not so much" Blake tapered off.

"Yeah well um…"

Sweets looked around at the cross armed agents and the forensic anthropologist. The tension was so stagnant, it could have killed any good mood. He sighed as the smile faded from his face.

"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth. You guys missed your appointment," he announced.

"I was up all night with this. I forgot to call," Brennan admitted.

"The two of you attend therapy? How rich," Blake mused.

"Maybe the three of you could come in for a joint session? I'm feeling a lot of tension here and…"

"No!" all three said in unison.

"It was just a thought? Best of luck on Han. Call me if you need me," he said with a defeated wave and left.

Brennan went back to the bones and Blake and Booth stood quiet. Booth tried to work a scenario out in his head. How had bones from two bodies ended up in the ground?

"We may be looking at a double murder here," he said.

"Yeah," Blake admitted. "But I wonder what their story is?"

All of them turned their attention toward the monitors. Zach walked up with the drill and handed Brennan some goggles. She put them on and plugged in the drill.

"I don't know," she told them both. "But soon, we will find out."

Author's Note: I would like to thank **Cerridwen **for pointing me in the right direction on the specifics of removing a body from this type of situation. I still didn't go into great detail for fear of being dishonest to the science and getting it terribly wrong. I believe in accuracy and I feel I wouldn't have gotten much right, since I am a writer and not a scientist at heart. So approach this story with the intent of having fun. I do apologize for any inaccuracies. I do what I can and that is only my best.

Also, thank you for the reviews! They are my life force, so keep em ' coming! I will 3 you forevers.


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